Key Deer: Curious, but shy creatures

Key Deer

Sephen M. DowellOrlando Sentinel

Key Deer, a subspecies of the White-tailed deer, live only in a few of the Florida Keys. An endangered species, there are only about 700-800 of these animals left. They all live on a very small range of the Keys, from Sugarloaf Key to Bahia Honda Key.

It is believed that the Key Deer migrated to the Florida Keys from the mainland over a land bridge during the Wisconsin glaciation. The earliest known written reference to Key Deer comes from the writings of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spanish sailor shipwrecked in the Florida Keys and captured by Native Americans in the 1550s.

The small deer (slightly larger than half the size of their White-tailed relatives) have no natural fear of humans, and most of the deaths to Key Deer are from collisions with vehicles. A stretch of U.S. 1 in the deer's habitat has had the speed limit lowered to 45 mph in the day and 35 mph at night to alleviate the road kills.

I recently had a memorable encounter with several of the little deer on No Name Key right around dusk. Driving through the isolated roadways on the Key, the deer would peek out of the heavy brush.

Some even walked toward my 12-year-old son Jacob and licked his hand. They appeared curious, but shy, and would scamper back into the woods after a few seconds.

The deer would come out about half an hour before sunset (about 6:30 on this night) until complete darkness. We saw two bucks, several does and three fawns.

It was quite an experience for my son, since only a few hundred of these animals exist on the planet.